After School Spring Walk

I did do a bunny craft at Anne's preschool this week but the pictures are so dark that I couldn't bear to do a whole blog post devoted to them. They are adorable but preschool lighting is not the best! You can see them here.

The spring weather here in Western PA has been really rainy and it's been hard to get out and enjoy. Yesterday we had rain in the morning but the sun came out by the time Elsie got home from school so the kids and I took a walk (Cal & I) / bike ride (girls) to the creek close by our house.

We have lived at this house for about 15 months now and I didn't discover this walk until early last summer. It is so beautiful by the creek and I thought I would share this with you all since you got all those city shots last time!You can only see this waterfall in the early spring before all the leaves come in. It is a pretty steep hill- how in the world did all those daffodils get there??

Anne has learned to ride without training wheels recently. The girls had a great time riding over since it is slightly downhill. They were not so positive on the way back since at one point I was carrying both bikes, my camera, and dragging Cal along behind me.

The wild flowers in the woods are just starting to bloom. Bloodroot is all along the road on this walk. Easy for pictures and I love how happy and bright it is among all the dark stick and leaves.

When we got off the road and went down the path to the creek I saw this flower which after a little research I realized it is just trout lily unopened.

and the trillium are just starting to bloom too! These have always been my favorite.

We set the bikes aside and went down to the creek. It was pretty cold but the kids wanted to put their feet in the water. Isn't that part of being a kid? Wanting to put your feet in the water no matter the temperature?

Can you see where all this water play is headed? They all fell in, in chronological order of their age. Just for you to know, each consented to having their picture taken…

and finally, although it took awhile and she didn't cry about it until we got home and saw that she had a scrape on her knee, even the big girl fell in…

The falls in the freezing cold water didn't seem to bother anyone too much…

At the end I wanted to be in a picture too! I set the camera on a timer on a rock and here is the picture that we got…

HA! I did take another that was centered but this one is so much better. That's a whole lot of crazy curly hair and you can see how Cal chopped off his bangs. Now, most mom's may rush over to the hair salon and get that look taken care of pronto, but I am just gonna let it roll for awhile cuz I think it's pretty funny still.

I am hoping to make this walk many times this spring and summer. It's only about 10 minutes away. Sometimes we bring a picnic snack and have stick races in the "rapids". In the summer, the kids and I wear our bathing suits. I love not having to get in the car and not having to make a big plan.

We went creeking yesterday behind Al & Trish’s house and found a raccoon skull and Doe carcass. Steven has the as-yet-unnamed raccoon skull here on the table, and Hannah made off with the deer vertebrae. I suppose they’ll turn up when I least expect them…